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Avane Srimannarayana (2019)
Great premise sort of collapses in the end - Despite numerous positives, ASN failed to satisy.
Appreciate Rakshit's vision of building a world of amaravati which has dacoits, cowboys, naataka gang etc. So premise is good. Plot is interesting but little inconsistent or slow paced in narration. Appreciate that almost every scene was unpredictable. So it's a new tale for all of us.
BGM keeps us hooked while songs are extremely average especially for a combo which has given us BB albums like UK, Kirick Party - this is below par.
Writing at many places is good, at many places it tries to be over-smart and at places it fell flat.
Plot twist or the main twist falls flat. Not that I was expecting it to be mind blowing but it's just genius stuff for the main character and not for the viewers.
Rakshit gets one of the best introduction scene in his career. He does a neat job in carrying the movie but the character is not as enjoyable as Sherlock Holmes or Jack Sparrow. Writing kinda failed in making him enjoyable or funny.
Achyuth at his natural best. Shanvi has couple of expressions in entire movie and speaks kannada like my 3 year old niece. She was fine for her half-baked character.
Balaji Manohar as Jairama stole the show. He lived the role and made us feel for him! For me he was one of the best part of ASN and I din't know he had it in him. While Pramod Shetty as Tukaram was fine.
24crs budget antare but production values not up to the mark. Somewhere it was not completely convincing for me. Also color grading ella correctag maadilla... could have been more believable.
The main problem (out of the negligible ones) about ASN is the climax. Climax sequence is like 25-30 mins long. The build up for climax is very good and as each minute passed I was hoping that Rakshit & team nail it like KGF did in climax. But all the set up collapsed due to poor writing or over ambitiousness. You will see all the weak writing, unnecessary swag, cartoonish/ video game act and random stuff happening in last 15 mins. It's disappointing for me to believe that ASN had a great chance to have unanimous positive review among A audience, if it had got the last 15 mins right.Poor CGI also adds thuppa to this collapse. Also the climax desperately needed Cowboy Krisna's cameo in the climax. His intro got equal number of whistles and applause as Rakshit did.
Just to summarize, ASN was not supposed to be a BC movie anyway so it's not for all. But unfortunately it may disappoint many in A audience as well. ASN is definitely a new experience for everyone, at least for the new story they're trying to tell and for many moments but unfortunately it left a bitter taste in the end.
From the experience perspective, request you all to watch it. It's not a bad movie for sure. Experience this world of Rakshit and find out for yourself. I hope this movie finds its maximum audience.
Also in a similar genre, Bell Bottom stands out as the best movie for 2019.
Godhi Banna Sadharana Mykattu (2016)
Another beautiful experience in KFI
He smiles - you smile, He talks - you laugh and he narrates a beautiful story - you carefully listen to it & shed tears later! Such was Anant Nag's character and performance <3 My expectations were sky high and I was nowhere disappointed! Wow! Anant Nag sir finally gets a role he deserved and I don't mind watching Venkob Rao all day :D The movie kick starts right away from the opening credits with an amazing track(Ranga bhoomiye) & visuals and goes with a perfect pace till the Interval! Would easily give 5/5 for 1st half. Even a subtle way of narration gave me goosebumps at many places! That's an art for sure. 2nd half gets kinda repetitive and little dragged but has an amazing sequence to look forward to , which made me cry! Probably one of the best scenes I've ever watched! And it was not even a sad story! Love it when happy things can make you cry. Have concerns about few plot points but when the movie & characters are so beautiful, it's very difficult to complain!
Movie offered me more than what I expected, I went to watch my darling Anant and there was an equally brilliant character 'Ranga' and Vasishta portrayed it perfectly! En kadak voice guru! He's a brilliant actor to look forward to! And then there's Achyuth Rao who never disappoints! About Rakshit I don't have much complaints - his character pisses you off and also makes us feel for him & understand his situation so we can safely say that he did a good job! Sruthi was apt! Their relationship & the journey was shown in a very interesting way and watch out for the ending! :) Although I wish the spotlight should have been on 'GBSM' in the last shot!
Music was one more wow factor of GBSM. Sadly I couldn't appreciate it much before the movie but listening to it with the visuals was the best experience! And I loved most of the songs! Charan does an amazing job even in BGM!
Hemanth is an extremely talented story-teller. He establishes so many themes and conveys it very well! His writing is nearly flawless and he also tries to surprise you at many places even in a drama! Liked the subplot of vasishta which was handled very well. The dialogues especially deserves more credit! Because it wasn't over the top or too Kanglishy or too random or forceful. It's just neat, sensible and perfect! I'm a fan already! Keep going brother :D
Thanks Hemanth, Pushkar and team for giving such a gem to cherish <3 Watch it for Sri Sir Anantnag ji, Vasishta & mainly for the beautiful experience! :)
RangiTaranga (2015)
RangiTaranga - Definitely a colorful wave!
There are horror movies which offer mainly jumpscares and there are some which will be haunting even after the movie. And then there's this new wave called RangiTaranga – which offers brilliant jump-scares and leaves you haunting even after you come out of the theatre. Not many movies can do that. RangiTaranga doesn't stick to one genre. Director Anup bhandari has played with the genres according to the neatly written and twisted but brilliant screenplay.
The good news is Rangitaranga satisfies all kinds of audience be it frolic seeking janata or experience seeking world cinema followers. While normal audience can soak in the brilliant BGM and the creepy scares with frequent twists, the latter who can appreciate the technicality and the writing of the movie! There are actually more than one story to this movie. The main plot is about the haunted house 'Kamaruttu' and the theories and mysteries surrounding it! Like other movies even this had a similar format but interesting thing about this is the premise. It's surely something new to our audience and there's a lot of detail involved. And the director establishes some really good things and characters in the premise that keeps you thinking. Another story is about Gautham(Nirup bhandari) and Indu(Radhika Chetan) who come to Kamaruttu for a different purpose. And they have their own dark past to worry about. And the final arc is about Sandhya(Avanthika Shetty) looking for a writer called Anashku, who also heads to the same place.
The purposes of these main characters, the mystery surrounding the place, their dark past and how these arcs connect together forms the main crux of the plot. Anup Bhandari has cautiously tried to narrate all these stories with a gripping screenplay and he has pulled it off brilliantly. Right from the first scene, the movie starts to cast its spell on the audience.The first half is mainly about introducing the characters,establishing the premise, providing clues and ending with a great twist while the Second half caters to revelations and connecting all the loose ends! Frequent twists keep the viewers intriguing till the end.
Some scenes are really spine chilling, thanks to the amazing BGM by Ajaneesh Loknath who is definitely the third hero to this movie.Technically the movie is just perfect and they have not compromised anywhere. Cinematographers Lance Kaplan and David Williams should take a bow. The light setting, the camera angles are different and it uplifts the movie to a whole new level. People often confuse rich visuals with richly spent visuals but this movie defines what rich visuals and cinematography is. And the scares wouldn't have been this extremely effective if it wasn't for the editing! It is perfectly done most of the time! The pure Kannada lyrics for all the songs by Anup Bhandari is one more plus point to this movie. They are mostly situational.
Coming to the performances, Nirup Bhandari looks good and for a debut he does a good job but should have done better in a few sequences. The two lead actresses are another great find after Nabha(Vajrakaya) & Priyanka(Ganapa). Avanthika gets to shine more than Radhika and they were great in their roles. Ananth Rao plays a good intimidating cop and other supporting actors do their job well. And there's another important character called KaaLinga Bhat played by Sai Kumar. After Kalpana he comes back with a brilliant role to play. His dialogue delivery, his presentation and his variation in acting is exceptional. There are minor negatives – Some dialogues lacked the feel and punch while a few questions are left unanswered, maybe they weren't relevant to the main plot nevertheless it's easily one of the strongest content dependent movie to come in the recent times after Krishna Leela.
Ulidavaru Kandanthe (2014)
Naanu Kandante!
This was one of the most anticipated movie of 2014! The trailer was a huge hit & with Rakshit Sir interacting with us in FB n twitter, I was able to understand his view/passion/commitment towards direction so I was waiting like a mad dog for this movie! The theater was full, the environment was great but I've to admit that I was kinda disappointed after the movie! Not saying its bad! Content & technicality wise, Movie is brilliant but because of Kundapura/Mangalore kannada, I was not able to understand 70-80% of the dialogues! I could have managed but throughout the movie it was not a good experience for me because the voices weren't audible enough! I'm not sure if it was the fault of Eshwari theater or the effect of sync sound system but we were not able to hear 60-70% of the dialogues! And it gets worse! There is no subtitles(There was subs for 6-9 dialogues but I see no point in that). So sadly for me, it was like watching a Japanese 'Roshomon' movie without audio & without subs! So the whole dialogue content was dots to me & I had to connect it by myself to understand what the characters said! I was not able to understand the Cuban kid & many other important thoughtful conversations in the movie! So I feel very bad for that! I don't want to completely blame it on M'lore kannada but subtitles should have been there for better & perfect understanding! And I also felt that the movie is dragged! I'm fine with movie being lengthy n slow paced but those scenes should make sense & it should be well connected with the story! So I think 10-15 mins should be chopped off!! Coming to the positive aspects I've to say the movie was brilliant & very very thoughtful! I'm very happy that we are gifted with one more brilliant writer-director Rakshit Shetty! Making is top class! We can see his work in every single frame! Story & screenplay is again too good! I can't say I loved the climax because I was able to predict it from the time when I heard 'Perspectives'in the trailer but it was very well executed! I loved all the characters & also loved the importance given to every single character! From Democracy to Rathnakka I think everyone did maximum justice to their role! The Maphia chase scene(background which looked like Sin City)was amazing, Mother-son scene was touching & Munna closing his eyes, visualising himself with Sharada on the beach, is just beautiful! Cinematography is perfect! Music was top notch! Hands down Ajaneesh Sir! :salute: Well Content & technicality wise it is one of the best movies in recent times! So if I was a critic I would have given 9or10/10! But I was a confused patron who was not able to completely understand the dialogues so I would give 7/10! So my only complaints are Movie length, No subtitles(Subs were there in the trailer, so I thought it would be here too) & the most of the dialogues being in Kundapura/M'lore Kannada! And Rakshit Sir, you are a brilliant maker! Hope u make more of such sensible movies!
Final Verdict - Movie was good n thoughtful but I couldn't enjoy it properly/perfectly!
Ugramm (2014)
Gives justice to the title!
Woah! Brilliant making! With such a pacy screenplay, I would say it was completely a thrill ride! And this ride begins from Sri Murali character name itself - Agasthya!!! 1st half was decent but 2nd half blew me away! Murali & Haripriya finally got a good opportunity to showcase their talents! Tilak had done similar roles like this before but this was perfection and I liked him a lot! Stunts were too good! Story & songs were decent but have no words to speak about BGM! Yappa! I literally got goosebumps and it is still playing in my head! Thanks to the brilliant cinematography which adds more stylishness to the movie! Dialogues were meaningful and brilliant! With all these plus points I think the minor flaws can be ignored! The direction was very matured n trust me I don't think many experienced directors can match the skill this guy has! (y) I don't know if I'm exaggerating or not but I totally loved it!! And you can easily watch it once!